Interviews

Editors note: This is a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country… including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email robertwhitney99@hotmail.com . Please give coach’s name, email, phone, and a small paragraph...

When you first started working with XC skiers two years ago, what did you see they could best get out of strength training. That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’m still working on that. I couldn’t then, nor can I now pinpoint any specifics. Early on, it’s important to build rapport and trust in one another. The way I approach strength with skiing is that in the whole scheme of things, strength is a...

Garrott Kuzzy is a member of the CXC Team (cxcskiing.org). An NCAA All-American and All-East skier and runner, Kuzzy was a staple at the top of the Eastern ranks before graduating from Middlebury College in May, 2006. Last week, he garnered some significant national results in West Yellowstone finishing fifth in the Super Tour sprint and third in the fifteen kilometer classic race. (He is sitting second overall on the Super Tour points list.) Fasterskier...

Zach why leave the sun of San Diego and the U.S.O.C. behind for the U.S. Ski Team? Every decision has its reasons. The work side of things was the main reason. I knew Andy Walsh, Per Lundstrom and Sue Robson (USST Sport Science Staff), and knew they were very innovative in how they approached sport – how sport science was integrated within the teams. With the USOC it was more consulting with various NGB’s (national...

** Editors note: This is a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country… including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email A good day's work. 3. Why coaching? You've been with Boulder...

NORDIC SKIING ON THE RISE Knocking for a Medal Can young Matt Gelso break the spell on the U.S. cross country team's dismal Olympic record? Laura Read Sunday, November 26, 2006 Last year's fall in North Tahoe produced a few weeks of blazing foliage followed by intense bouts of rain. During the downpours most people finished puzzles or played Clue or Scrabble. Not 17-year-old Matt Gelso. Bad weather rarely shuts him in. Through the gray...

Interview by FIS Tour de Ski Press Coordinator Sandra Spitz with World Champion Vincent Vittoz on the Tour de Ski Sandra Spitz: You’ve already told us that your focus this winter will be, besides the World Championships, on the Tour de Ski. What do you think about this competition series and what do you fear most in this kind of a race: the number of races, the sprints or the final climb? Vincent Vittoz: I...

Editors note: This is a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country… including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today’s skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email Fredrik, spring time uncovering the snowdrifted snowmachine. 1. Skiing background? What brought...

This is a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country…..including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today's skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email biking in Moab

Kris Freeman is beginning his fourth season as a full-time World Cup competitor. Kris is looking to return to his form of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, where he was consistently scoring World Cup points and qualified for the prestigious Distance Red Group. We caught up with Kris in Gaellivare, Swe, where he is now preparing for the start of his 2006-2007 World Cup campaign. 1. Kris, how do you feel going into the World...

This will be a weekly column highlighting our ski coaches from around the country…..including elite coaches, college coaches, high school coaches, volunteer coaches, and learn-to-ski coaches. This is an effort to sample a diverse group of coaches and recognize the people who are the backbone of today's skiers. If you would like to nominate a coach for an interview, please email www.alaskanordicracing.org . Rob Whitney asked him a few questions. Name, age, background? Ja Dorris,...

Tor Arne Hetland wouldn’t mind more street sprints as a part of the World Cup. He was third in Düsseldorf’s streets on Saturday.

Riikka Rakic is a 1995 Graduate of Middlebury College and the FIS coordinator for this year’s Tour de Ski. Rakic answered some questions for www.Middleburyskiing.org . www.tour-de-ski.com for some recent commentary on the Tour! What challenges will world skiing face in the years to come? I personally think that the climatic change will be the biggest challenge we will have to face in the future and it will have a great impact on the skiing...

Alaskan Kikkan Randall (Anchorage) flashes her trademark wide smile and notes, “It's in my blood” as she explains how an aunt (Betsy Haines) was a 1980 Olympic cross country skier, and an uncle was an Olympian, too (John Haines, '76). Randall, 23 and a two-time Olympian – and a junior at Alaska Pacific University (with a business major), comes into the 2007 season with confidence from last winter when she produced the best U.S. women's...

With the start of the World Cup season just 4 days away, Andy Newell is spending a week at the new Torsby Ski Tunnel in Sweden preparing for the sprint races in Dusseldorf, Germany. This will be the fourth year in which the World Cup season begins in Dusseldorf, but it will be the first time that Andy has competed in the World Cup opener. We were able to catch up with Andy and ask...

The Viessmann FIS World Cup Cross-Country season will start on 28th-29th October in Düsseldorf (GER). FIS Newsflash caught up with Jürg Capol, FIS Race Director Cross-Country, at the outset of the new season. He shared his thoughts into the winter that includes not only the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo (JPN) but also the premiere edition of the FIS Tour de Ski, a new multi-stage event that is part of the Viessmann FIS...

Geir Ludvig Ã…sen had to turn 32 years old before he was found good enough for the Norwegian national team. But now he is on it. Deserved , he feels.

By: Rick Halling, Atomic Many of the top Worldcup racers switched to Atomic this past summer. One German coach made the remark, “It is like the other ski companies are the tired old husbands who take their trophy wives for granted and they are surprised when the wives leave them for some handsome young stud. The athletes are like the trophy wives and Atomic is the handsome young stud. All the top athletes are leaving...

Matt Whitcomb is a development coach with the US Ski Team. Whitcomb graduated from Middlebury College in 2001. Before captaining the Middlebury ski team, Whitcomb earned honors as at Stratton Mountain School as an All American junior skier. Following college Whitcomb began coaching at Burke Mountain Academy, where his athletes succeeded nationally and internationally. He has also served as New England’s team leader for Junior Nationals. www.middleburyskiing.org Andrew Gardner is Head Coach of the Middlebury...

The German has two main goals This week Tobias Angerer (GER), overall Cross-Country World Cup winner of the season 2005/2006 and 2006 Olympic Bronze Medalist in the 15 km individual race in the classical style, answers some questions for the FIS Newsflash about the upcoming season. By Sandra Spitz, FIS It is only 17 days to go until the start of the new “Viessmann” FIS World Cup Cross-Country season 2006/2007. As in the 4 years,...